Unplugged
by ceridwen-amyed
Summary: Just a little fic detailing what Neo is thinking when he's being unplugged, i.e. the mirror scene


This little fan fic is dedicated to Scottishlass and Centaur and all the other brilliant Matrix fan writers on the web

This little fan fic is dedicated to Scottishlass and Centaur and all the other brilliant Matrix fan writers on the web. Their beautiful stories inspired me to write this and have given me a better understanding of the Matrix and the Real World… Long Live The Matrix!

DISCLAIMER: None of these characters are mine: they all belong to the Wachowski brothers or WB or whoever. The same with the script. I am not making a penny from this yadda yadda. You know the score.

This is rated as a PG/ PG-13 for language. Just so you know.

And I just want to apologise for starting this in the middle of a scene, but I really couldn't be bothered to write out the whole scene when I only wanted to write about the end. I might eventually update this to include the rest of the scene but then again, I might not bother. Just to keep you all on your toes… ;)

* * * * * * *

Morpheus leans forward suddenly and I lean backwards, slightly startled by the sudden movement. I still feel uneasy about the whole situation but resolve to see it through. I can see my reflection in his dark glasses. I look sceptical, which is good. I was worried that my fear and desire just to run from the room would show through.

"This is your last chance," he says. "After this, there is no going back." He opens his right hand. "You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe." Blue pill? It looks like a jellybean. I feel my scepticism rise. I climbed into a strange car with strange people who want to pull guns out at me and electrocute something that I thought was just a dream out of my belly button… and then they give me a jelly bean? But his words make me think. 

__

"Wake up in your bed…. Believe whatever you want to believe…"

Hasn't that already happened? Were those agents, that … that bug… just a dream?

Morpheus continues his speech. "You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." This time, his hand opens to reveal a red jellybean. I look at the pills briefly. My fingers rub the chairs red leather for a moment in indecision and then make the only choice I know I can make.

"Remember," he says, just as I am reaching for the red jellybean. I can see the two pills reflected in his glasses, in their respective hands. My hand hovers over the red one.

"All I am offering is the truth. Nothing more." His voice is soft and I know that this is a warning that I may not like this 'truth' of his.

I look at the glasses, then with a confidence I don't feel, I take the red pill and swallow it with a sip of water from the glass on the table. No going back now. Morpheus stares at me as I do so, his face breaking into a Cheshire cat grin as I swallow. It quickly fades.

"Follow me," he says, suddenly business like again. I follow him into the next room, which is full of high-tech equipment. Computers glowing with a strange code running down the screen and other bits and pieces. A telephone, earphones, something that looks like a periscope. Although it is all obviously very technical it looks hand made. Like it was cobbled together with limited resources and time.

As we enter, Morpheus holds out his hand and a man I don't recognise hands him a cell phone. He asks:

"Apoc, are we on-line?" 

Another man I do recognise as the driver of the car stands and says "Almost." The way he stands when Morpheus enters reminds me of when I was just a kid and we had to stand when the headmaster entered the room. Who _is_ this Morpheus? Just how important is he?

Morpheus turns to me. "Neo, time is always against us. Will you take a seat there?" He gestures to a chair, which is suspiciously wired up to the rest of the equipment. The blond woman from the car takes off my coat and I sit in the chair. Trinity starts to attach white discs to my arms and the back of my neck. Oh God. What kind of crazy shit have I gotten myself into this time? I look up nervously at Trinity. She looks so calm, standing like a beacon in all my confusion. I feel like I'm in a movie: only a _really_ twisted director could come up with this scenario.

"Did you do all this?" I ask, the words spilling out of my mouth before I have the chance to curb the fear in my voice.

"Mmm-hmm." she nods. Okay, this is fine. I can do this. She finishes wiring me up and moves off to study a nearby monitor.

"The pill you took is part of a trace system. It's designed to disrupt your input/output carrier system so we can pinpoint your location," says Morpheus calmly. What the fuck – Why is he using computer terminology to describe me?

"What does that mean?" I ask, suddenly not sure I want to know.

I jump slightly at the sudden, sarcastic voice: "It means buckle your seatbelt Dorothy, cause Kansas is going bye-bye." As soon as he stops speaking a bolt of lightening illuminates the room, punctuating his words. Oh, great, now I _know_ I'm in a movie. I have no idea what this guy is talking about but I can guess that it's not good. I lock eyes with Trinity, searching for some kind of answer or reassurance. I can't see any. Okay, this is not fine, I'm gonna die –

I clamp a lid on the panicky voice inside me. I take a few deep breaths to try and calm my racing heart. Something catches my eye to my right and I turn my head slowly, afraid of what crazy shit I will see now. To my relief it's just a broken mirror. I lean forward, trying to see my own distorted reflection. Thank, God, just an ordinary broken mirror, nothing weird or fucked up about it –

What the –

"Did you -" I turn to look at the others to check that I'm not the only one that saw a mirror repair itself. I reach out with my fingers to touch it. They sink into the mirror. Oh shit. I immediately pull back but the now liquid mirror stretches with me, unwilling to free my fingers from its quicksilver grip. Morpheus steps forward, apparently unconcerned that a mirror was trying to eat me...

"Have you ever had a dream Neo, that you were so sure was real?" I finally break the mirrors contact and it warps, rippling and distorting its reflection. I slowly look back at him, heart beating faster with every second.

"What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the real world and the dream world?"

I look back at my hand, now being covered by the quicksilver. I know I should be more afraid then I actually feel but I'm entranced by it.

"This can't be-"

"Be what? Be real?" There is a harshness to his voice that wasn't there before but I have no time to think about it. The quicksilver gathers its momentum and starts climbing up my arm. I gasp.

"It's cold…" Colder then anything I've ever experienced before. Even the time my friend and me got locked in his mom's walk in freezer for 10 minutes. I can hear the others in the room speaking hurriedly but I don't care what they are saying. I can't even think anymore. The coldness consumes me.

The quicksilver has reached my neck. I tilt my head up. It's getting hard to breathe. Oh shit, why did I do this? Killed by a cold mirror… It was happening so slowly, it HURT, goddamn it…

Two of the voices suddenly sound out, clearly:

"Lock! I got him!"

"Now, Tank, now!"

A pain erupts from the top of my neck all the way down my body. I hear myself scream and hear that scream contort into an electronic cry as the quicksilver runs down my throat, freezing me from the inside and I wish I were dead. Then suddenly it all stops. I open my eyes.

* * * * * * *

I'm definitely gonna have to write the rest of the scene… It'll make the whole thing gel together better. That will be up soon, I promise! I may have dipped in out of different tenses. If I have, please tell me so I can correct it. Thankies!

Anyway, r & r, you lovely people, I love feedback. You'll be greatly rewarded in this life or the next if you do!

Sunday 8th July 2001


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